Rubber stopper



Feb. 16, 1954 l. G. ROYALL, JR

RUBBER STOPPER Filed July 28. 1950 NTOR. lVEY G. ROYALL, JR.

INVE

K T ORNE Y Patented Feb. 16,1954

RUBBER STOPPER Ivey G. Royall, Jr., St. Marys, Ohio, assignor, by mesne assignments, to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, a corporation of Ohio Application July 28, 1950, Serial No. 176,380

1 Claim. 1

The present invention relates to a rubber bottle stopper of the type to be used, for instance, with vacuum bottles for carrying cold or hot liquids, foods and the like. A primary object of this invention is to provide a stopper which is flexible and will readily accommodate itself to irregularities in the inner wall of the neck portion of such a bottle while effectively sealing the neck to retain the contents therein.

A further object of this invention is to provide sealing ribs on the outer surface of the bottle stopper which will more effectively seal the contents of the bottle while at the same time providing for a better seating of the bottle stopper in the neck and which will reduce the opportunity of pressure being built up on the inside of the bottle when the stopper is put in place.

Other objects of this invention will appear hereinafter as the description thereof proceeds, the novel features, arrangements and combinations being clearly set forth in the specification and in the claim thereunto appended.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the neck of a vacuum bottle provided with a stopper made according to this invention;

Fi 2 is a similar cross-section of the vacuum bottle shown at Fig. l but with the stopper shown in elevation rather than in cross-section;

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the stopper; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing the deformation of the upper ribs when the stopper is placed in position.

In Fig. 1, the vacuum bottle is shown having a neck portion I provided with a rubber stopper 2, it being understood that the term rubber applies as well to synthetic rubbers and like yieldable substitutes therefor as well as to natural rubber, the basic characteristics of the stopper itself for such a use being that the walls thereof be relatively flexible and pliable, yet of substantial thickness to prevent collapse and with the composition of the rubber or other material bein of a character which will not contaminate the liquid or other material within the bottle. There are a large variety of compositions which meet these requirements and these are Well understood in the industry and will not be described herein.

The stopper provides a somewhat cylindrical outer wall portion 3 which is tapered slightly at the outer lower end thereof as at 4 from a point about midway of the length of the stopper. The upper part of the wall is substantially cylindrical. The wall 3 is of substantial thickness so as to resist collapse of this wall but, at the same time,

provide for slight deformations in the wall to accommodate the stopper to irregularities in the neck portion. For example, sometimes these neck portions are somewhat oval-shaped on the in terior or have slight depressions therein which require that some yielding material be used so as to provide for proper sealing. With the hollow stopper, this yielding of the material can take place without placing too much strain on the bottle neck itself. With ordinary stoppers which are solid, it is necessary to place that material under a compression in order that it can accommodate itself to the variations in the neck portion.

The inner end of the stopper is closed off by a wall 5 to retain the contents in the bottle and the outer peripheral surface of the wall 3 is provided with two sets of ribs 6 and l. The ribs 6 arranged at the top are continuous throughout the periphery of the wall 3 whereas the ribs 1 are discontinuous, as is illustrated more clearly in Fig. 2. The discontinuous ribs at the lower end of the stopper provide passageways 8 which permit air or steam to escape from the bottle during the first movement of the stopper into operative sealing position. At th same time, with a stopper of this kind, it is rotated somewhat as it is being inserted and the ribs, although discontinuous, have a wiping action on the inner surface of the neck portion which will clean the inner surface of the neck portion and remove most of the moisture therefrom to permit a better seal to be effected by the ribs 6 when the stopper is moved into the position shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. l, the arrows indicate the passage of air, steam or vapor out of the container during the first movement of the stopper into operative position. By permitting the air to escape from the bottle before the ribs 6 reach a sealing position, very little pressure is built up inside of the container when the stopper is in its final position as in Fig. 2. It is common knowledge that an ordinary cork stopper placed in a container of this kind generally builds up quite a pressure inside of the bottle and corks have been known to pop out under this pressure with a consequent spilling of the contents in case the container is inverted or laid on its side. It is true that with this stopper there is still some pressure built up in the container after the lowermost one of the continuous ribs 6 engages the inner neck portion of the bottle to seal it off but it is much less than ordinary stoppers.

It is to be noted that while the stopper is shown as somewhat tapered at the bottom, the proportions of the stopper are designed so that when the stopper is inserted, the tapered portion disappears because the upper portion of the wall 3, adjacent the continuous ribs, is forced inwardly, thus bringing that portion of the Wall more or less in alignment with the lower portion of the wall which itself is gradually compressed into a substantially cylindrical shape during the insertion. Of course, it'isrealized that under-all'conditions this condition will not exist but it is preferable that the stopper be designed as shown so that the greatest sealing pressure is reached upon the full 1 insertion of the stopper into the container.

The upper edge of the wall Sisrein'fQrced bya rib or lip 9 shown here as being somewhat greater in cross-section radially of the stopper'thanit'is axially, whereby when the wall :3ztendsto collapse under the pressure created during insertion of the stopper, it will not totally collapse but will be held against such a collapse by the thickened rim or lip portion 9 which, in additiomacts-to provide means for gripping'the stopper toremove itfrom or insert it into the container. Thisrim portion 9, while offering considerable resistance to inward collapse of the'wall -3,stillcan be deformed readily when, for example, the neck of the bottle is somewhat oval.

In Fig. l, I have illustrated on a rather enlarged scale, and probably in somewhat exaggerated form, the compression of the ribs upon insertion of the stopper in the bottle. These ribs tend to flatten out and elongate axially of the stopper so that there-is a resilient force tending to hold the ribs against the inner neck of the bottle due to the tendency of-the ribsto regain their normal shape, which .issubstantially semi-air cular in cross-sectin,as indicatedbydotted lines ate in Fig. l.

It is obvious that with a stopper of this-kind, the same may be'readily molded with-a relatively small amount of rubber, that it will-yieldto slight irregularities in thecross-sectional shape of the neck of a container with which itis tobe used, and that during insertion of the stopper thelower ribs will-tend to clean the inner neck of thebottle-to malreit moresuitable for engagement with .the sealing ribs 8 upon full insertion of .the stopper to the position shown in Fig. 2 while at the same time permitting the escapeof .air, steamer thelihe from the container, atleast upuntilithe time when thelowermostof the continuous ribs 6 engagesthe'inner surface of the neck. Such'a stopper is substantially indestructible and will give considerable wear and can be readily cleaned and sterilized. It is .to be understood that plastics which are sufiiciently flexible for this purpose and providethe necessary other characteristics are included within the scope of this invention as it is not intended to limit the invention to any particular material.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A stopper comprising an imperforate generally cup-shaped member of .rea'dily yieldable material having an outer wall of generally cylindrical shape closed. at its inner end by a thin transverse readily flexible wall, a plurality of peripherally extending, axially spaced, integral flexible ribs on the outer surface of said first wall, said ribs having rounde'd outer peripheries, a plurality of said ribs 'near the inner'closed end of the cup-shaped memberbeing recessed to permit passage of fluid past sameand others thereof near the open end of the cup-shaped member being continuous to prevent such passage, said continuous ribs being distributed over substantially the upper half of the first wall and said discontinuousiribs being disposed over substantially the lowerhalf thereof, said transverse wall being relatively thin and thus readily flexible axially of the stopper to perrriit axially inward movement of theribs lying in the plane of the wall whereby the ribs may conform to irregularcontours in an opening in which the same may-be inserted and'thusprevent undue resistance to insertion of the stopper,'a number of said discontinuous ribs being arranged on the outer side of said first wall in axially spacecl'relation 'to said transverse wall whereby uponinsertion of said stopper in an opening the tran verse wail will not offer resistance to the radially inward movement of said latter ribs, the upper edge or" said first wall being enlarged radially to provide a reinforced peripheral lip to'resist collapse-oi the open end of said stopper and to also provide a means by which the stopper maybe readily grasped to remove it from an opening'in which same maybe inserted.

IVEY G. ROYALL, J R.

ReferencesCi-ted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name ,Date

1,423,592 Baldwin July 25, 1922 1,777,826 Cone Oct. 7, .1930

2,196,785 Takiguchi Apr. 9, 1940 2,353,674 Kimber July 13,1944

FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 395,293 France Feb. 18,1909 241,627 Switzerland Aug. 1,1946 

